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User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 32 (Sub)
Episode 31 (Sub), 23 (Dub) | Table of Contents | Episode 33 (Sub) Japanese title: “Mana Falls Sick! A Stormy Cultural Festival!” Hey, guys! Before we continue, let’s say goodbye to Glitter Force Doki Doki for a while. We’ll be going through a long patch of episodes that were cut from the dub. Everything from here to at least episode 38 is sub-only. I’m thinking that this is because the next several episodes seem like filler episodes. Of course, I don’t know what exactly is going to happen because I haven’t watched any of them just yet, but we have some very mundane things coming up, like teaching Ai to brush her teeth or getting Aguri to like carrots. We also have more interesting-sounding things, like Raquel becoming a human again and falling in love, but that still seems self-contained. So, this sub-only patch probably doesn’t have much of an effect on the rest of the plot. Well, with that said, let’s get into episode 32. It starts with all of the students of Oogai First Middle School working together to set up their upcoming cultural festival. Every year, Japanese schools have a cultural festival, which is a big event where students show off the work they’ve been doing all year. Japanese students put hours upon hours of work into their festivals. You can read more about them here. Anyway, after the class finally finishes setting up the festival, Mana excitedly congratulates her classmates for their hard work. Then, she suddenly faints. With that, we get the opening theme and the title card. We cut to Mana’s house, where Rikka says that according to the doctor, Mana fainted due to overexertion. She now has a fever of 38.1°C, which is 100.58°F. Mana’s still putting up a strong front, but Rikka thinks that she needs some rest because she’s been running around nonstop for the past several days making sure the cultural festival goes perfectly. Mana still wants to help with the cultural festival since everyone’s looking forward to it, but Rikka sternly orders Mana to rest tomorrow. As they walk home from Mana’s house, Rikka says that Mana is just as much a happy prince as ever. Aguri isn’t familiar with the fairy tale of the happy prince and the sparrow, so that evening, she checks out a library book depicting the story. She reads about how the statue of the happy prince gave away parts of himself to the townspeople, little by little. First, the jewels that adorned him, and then the entirety of his golden body. Aguri is horrified to see that the fairy tale basically ends with the prince dying for the sake of the townspeople. We cut to the Jikochuu hideout, where Bel gives Ira and Marmo two rings called Blood Rings in order to make them stronger. Bel also tells them that he’s King Jikochuu’s new second-in-command. Ira and Marmo protest this, so Bel makes the Blood Rings electrocute Ira and Marmo. Even worse, the two can’t take them off. To their horror, Bel reveals to them that he killed Leva and Gula and used their Janergy to make the Blood Rings. He threatens Ira and Marmo with the same fate if they don’t bow down to him. Okay, that’s pretty dark. Bel is as serious and evil as ever, I see. It’ll be pretty exciting to see how the dynamic between the Jikochuu Trio pans out. The next day is the day of the cultural festival. There are all sorts of things available, from karuta to a quiz show to a wide variety of food. The girls, sans Mana, are looking around and enjoying everything there. Then, an old woman and asks where the slippers for the guests to wear are. In Japan, you’re generally not allowed to wear your outside shoes inside of a building. Japanese students are given special shoes to wear inside school as part of their uniforms. I’m assuming that since guests to the school don’t have uniforms, they have to have temporary slippers instead. Rikka is about to go get slippers for the old woman when Mana appears with slippers already in hand. Mana’s supposed to be at home with Sharuru watching over her, but Sharuru was unable to stop her. Mana says that she’s feeling better, but Rikka is still upset. Before Rikka can say much else, a man comes in and asks Mana if he could lead him to his daughter’s class. Mana agrees to help him. Remembering the story of the happy prince, Aguri refuses to let Mana overexert herself and drags Mana away. Aguri brings Mana to the infirmary to get some rest. She then scolds Mana for not listening to Rikka and reminds her that at the end of the happy prince’s fairytale, the prince statue fell to ruin and only his lead heart remained. Fans sometimes criticize Aguri for being too harsh on her teammates, but frankly, it’s necessary here. Mana didn’t listen to Rikka when she told her to stay home, so it seems like the only person she’d listen to is someone like Aguri. Aguri leaves and tells Mana that she’ll send Arisu to watch over her. Then, she heads outside, where the vice president (a character we’ve never really seen before) is forced to take Mana’s place. He’s swamped with demands and complaints from other students (pamphlets running out, kids getting lost, bathrooms being overcrowded), and he has no idea how to deal with all the problems. The students wish that Mana was there to solve all these issues, but Aguri tells them that Mana isn’t coming, and that they should focus on solving their minor issues themselves before asking others for help. She says that if they can’t even solve their own problems, then all their work will amount to nothing. Aguri is so stern when she scolds the students about this that they can only watch, stunned, as Aguri walks away in a huff. When Rikka comes to check on the students, they’re still stunned because they were lectured by an elementary-schooler. We cut to a maid café put on in one of the classrooms. Makoto is trying to be a waitress, but she’s being swamped with autograph requests. Hey, we’re actually seeing Makoto being an idol for once! I don’t think that’s come into play since episode 24->18. Anyway, some of the other students want to help Makoto out, but they’re not sure what to do. Aguri comes in and scolds them, saying that they should act like the café staff they are. Much like last time, the students are just stunned. I really like the role Aguri plays as the temporary replacement to the student council president. Mana and Aguri take two completely different approaches as president. While Mana is extremely nice, hands-on, and always solving everyone’s problems, Aguri is angry, distant, and makes everyone work for themselves. They both represent harmful extremes when it comes to being a leader. Mana does too much work for everyone else, making it harder for them to be self-sufficient. But Aguri doesn’t do enough and is too rude to her followers, leaving them too demoralized to do much of anything. Back at the infirmary, Mana’s fever has gone down, but Arisu still won’t let her leave. Aguri then comes in to vent about how useless she thinks the other students are. Mana doesn’t mind helping them out all the time, but Aguri says that they’re just like the townspeople in the fairy tale and that they would be more self-sufficient if Mana didn’t do everything for them. Because they push all their problems onto other people, they’re more likely to become Jikochuu, and because Mana keeps tiring herself out, she won’t be able to fight the Jikochuu as well. Mana tells Aguri that as student council president, Mana can’t do everything. Everyone has things they can and can’t do, and Mana helps others when she can and gets help when she needs it. …Except that she hasn’t been getting help when she needs it. She’s been working herself to the point where her health is threatened. So, Aguri’s right, not her. Mana also says that the students don’t depend on her for everything and that they do work for themselves. But the students seem just as irresponsible as ever. Nikaidou (the guy getting into a fight from episode 1) isn’t putting any enthusiasm into advertising the café, and the students can’t do anything to keep some trickster from climbing on a neatly-stacked pile of logs and causing the logs to topple. The pile crashes down so loudly that Mana, Arisu, and Aguri hear it from inside the school. We get the eyecatches. Then, we see that an entire crowd has gathered to look at the broken-apart pile. The logs needed to be all stacked together for a bonfire to happen, but with the logs scattered, it looks like the bonfire is off. Much to Aguri’s distaste, rather than doing anything about it themselves, two students immediately run to Mana and ask for help. But at the scene of the crime, some of the students start putting the pile back together themselves. Nikaidou remembers that Mana told everyone to have fun together, and he says that putting the pile back together is the way to do it. Everyone joins in to reassemble the pile, and neither Mana nor Aguri has to say anything. While this is going on, one of the female students comes up to Aguri and says that they took her words to heart and solved their problems on their own. When they ran out of pamphlets, each class put up a poster instead. They gave nametags to the visiting children with their parents’ names on it so the middle-schoolers could contact them. And they opened the restrooms in the gym to the public. We cut back to the café, where we get our victim of the week. He’s talking way too loudly, and when one of the waiters politely tells him to quiet down, he seethes about it. This allows Ira to turn his Psyche into a teacup Jikochuu. Because of Ira’s Blood Ring, the blackened Psyche has a fancy black and red frame around it and the Jikochuu has a dark purple aura. The Jikochuu attacks the students around the wood pile, which has been put back together. Rather than running and screaming like people usually do in Pretty Cure, the students band together and tell the monster to get away from their wood. Meanwhile, the five main characters enter an unoccupied fortune-telling area to transform. For the first time, we see all five Pretty Cures transform together, instead of Ace transforming right after the others like before. Just as the Jikochuu is about to bludgeon the students with a giant spoon, Cure Rosetta blocks it with Rosetta Reflection and the other four kick the Jikochuu away. Cure Heart introduces herself to the shocked students and then does her catchphrase. When Ira jumps in and curses Pretty Cure, Cure Diamond is troubled and tells Ira to stop doing horrible things. It’s a nice callback to episode 26->20. I wonder if Diamond will be hesitant to attack Ira in this fight or if she’ll be forced to get over her bond with amnesiac Ira? Ira then uses his Blood Ring to power up the Jikochuu, giving it glowing red eyes and extra speed and strength. Pretty Cure puts up a good fight, but they eventually get punched into the air and sucked inside the Jikochuu. The Jikochuu then spins around and speeds all over the place, forcing a Mad Tea Party ride on the poor girls and making them dizzy. Eventually, the Jikochuu stops and lets them out. They all fall over because they’re so dizzy. Cure Heart takes it especially badly; she can’t get up, and it’s all she can do not to throw up all over the other four. Cure Ace decides to stall for time because she doesn’t get dizzy as easily. As she punches the Jikochuu out, the students of Oogai First cheer her on. She realizes that Mana was right. Unlike the fairy tale of the happy prince, the students can take care of themselves. It’s because of the love that Mana gives them as student council president, and that love is inside Ace as well. This allows her to unlock a brand-new attack: Ace Mirror Flash. Using her new pad (called a Lovely Pad) and Cure Lovies from last episode, Ace traps the Jikochuu between three mirrors, which unleash a blinding light on the Jikochuu. It would have been to the episode’s benefit if Ace Mirror Flash had finished off the Jikochuu like Ace Shot would have. But instead, Heart suddenly recovers from her dizziness, allowing the group to perform Lovely Straight Flush and finish the Jikochuu off. So, this episode, which is all about Mana learning that she doesn’t have to do the other students’ work for them, ends with her doing the other Pretty Cures’ work for them as the only way to finish the fight. What a Broken Aesop! I already told you all this, but Lovely Straight Flush really is a screwed-up attack. I’m not sure if it’s worse than Rainbow Rose Explosion (which was boring and downright annoying) or Cosmo Shining (spoilers in link) (which had no reason to exist and created a plot hole), but it’s definitely one of my least favorite attacks in the entire Pretty Cure franchise. Oh, and one other thing: Cure Ace was transformed for over five minutes this episode. Nobody comments on this, so it might be a plot hole. But given that Ace’s Lovely Pad allowed her to transform back into Cure Ace even after she de-transformed last episode, it’s plausible that the Lovely Pad has gotten rid of Ace’s time limit. With the lost Psyche restored and everything returning to normal, Ira teleports away after giving an obvious lie that this was just a teaser of what he really had in store. I don’t know why villains in Pretty Cure keep saying this when it’s obviously fake. But whatever. That evening, the bonfire is working perfectly and everyone is dancing around it. Mana thanks Aguri for helping her out, and Aguri says that it would be great if everyone returned the love that Mana gave to them because then they wouldn’t turn into Jikochuu. Mana then invites Aguri to dance with her. As the two girls run to the bonfire, Aguri vows to fight alongside Mana in order to create a future where everyone is selfless. Overall: Other than the issue with Lovely Straight Flush, this was a nice episode. Just like in episode 12->10, it was great to see the students learn to become stronger by themselves instead of relying on Mana for everything. I like that this episode used the two-extremes technique with Mana and Aguri to show that it’s okay to help other people, but people shouldn’t rely on you all the time. I just hope Mana takes this lesson to heart this time. In episode 12->10, the team learned that it could succeed just fine without relying on Mana, but it seems like Mana didn’t learn the same as she’s still working to excess even now. I worry that if Mana keeps ignoring this lesson, she’ll remain a static character throughout the series. It would be a shame because as a character, Mana has a lot of potential. Also, although it was nice seeing Ira again, I feel like not much was done between him and Rikka other than a throwaway line. Rikka's seeing Ira for the first time since she nursed him back to health all that time ago. You'd think it would be a bigger event for her. Additionally, I do wonder what will happen with the dub. I know this episode would have been a pain for Saban to dub because it had Japanese text all over the place, which would have made for either a lot of paint editing or a lot of cut footage. I’m kind of glad this episode wasn’t dubbed because it would have been a ton of work for me to screenshot all the Japanese text. But it turns out this wasn’t as much of a filler episode as I thought it would be. We have the introduction of the Blood Rings, a new dynamic between the Jikochuu Trio, and a new attack. How will the dub explain all this when it comes back? Next time: Arisu’s father comes home, and the girls reminisce about Arisu’s past! Category:Blog posts